In September 2016, Rich took us back to Vauxhall, which we last visited in March.

We met at the Riverside, a smart newish Young’s pub on the riverside (unsurprisingly), very close to Vauxhall. This is a large modern place with a large and attractive outside seating area, with all the usual brands you’d expect at a Young’s.

Once we were all together we headed south, to the Cavendish Arms. Last time we were here the beer was off and there was a burnt curtain; this time the curtain had gone, but the beer was still poor, one of the two being off (Hullabaloo) and had to be returned and replaced with passable Black Sheep.

As we were leaving the heavens opened, and a last minute change of plans took us to the Priory Arms, a superb little pub which was Pub of the Crawl in March. The beer range is still very impressive for such a small pub, and we dried out in here for a while with some superb beer, including Siren Under Current, Thornbridge Lord Marples and Brightside Best.

Once we were dry, and the shower had passed, we headed to the Surprise, fairly aptly named as it’s quite well hidden down a dead-end backstreet. It is a pretty small pub, and we sat in the small front bar with our Young’s pints before retracing our steps back towards Vaxuhall.

The next stop was the Canton Arms, one of Paul’s legendary closed pubs which we had tried to visit in March. This time it was certainly open and doing a thriving trade from its central servery, with some interesting beers on, and all in good condition.

We headed towards the Oval now via Albert Square (not the one on EastEnders, but the rather posher one that’s home to Joanna Lumley and was the childhood home of Roger Moore) to the Brown Derby. I’ve been here before after a match a the Oval; it’s a pretty good pub now and although I avoided the call of ‘Tony’s Cocktails’ the beers went down very well.

We continued north, retracing Paul’s steps from March again, to the Pilgrim. This was closed when we tried to visit in March but has since re-opened following that refurbishment, and was very comfortable.

The final stop stop of the crawl was the Rose, on the Embankment near the old London Fire Brigade headquarters , a fairly large and bright Victorian corner pub facing the Thames.

We managed to forget to agree on a Pub of the Crawl on the night, but afterwards agreed that the Brown Derby was a deserved winner – congratulations!

Following last month’s crawl around Kensington, Phil decided to change just the one letter and take us on a tour of the sights and hostelries of the lesser known Kennington, filling a gap in our coverage of zone 1, and indeed with some quality research his trivia filled some gaps in our knowledge.

The traditional close-to-a-station meet was at the busy Black Dog, tucked away in a back street close to Vauxhall. Once assembled, we headed to a pub with a difference, the Tamesis Dock, a 1930s Dutch barge now converted into a 3 level floating pub moored off the Albert Embankment.

As it floats (if only at high tide) they can’t keep casks but at least always have some decent beer in the fridge (as well as lagers on tap), so we depleted their stocks of Doom Bar and settled in up on deck. There aren’t many places you can sit with a beer and look across at Parliament but this is one.

Phil was our guide this time and started with the history as we left, pointing out in particular the amazing building which once housed Royal Doulton, before they left for the Potteries in the 1950s. Just a short hop from the former Doulton HQ was the next pub, The Windmill, presumably named after the constant manouevres you have to make to keep out of the way of the people setting up for the band. We ended up outside to keep out of the way, standing on Lambeth High Street, London’s only High Street without a single shop (though at least you can buy a beer).

After passing some examples of Doulton’s work under the railway bridge in Black Prince Road, the next stop was the Queens Head. It wasn’t open at the time, but was worth the stop for the best piece of trivia of the night; it was outside this pub that a young Charlie Chaplin saw a tramp staggering around, inspiring one of the most famous comic characters of the early 20th century.

Almost next door is the Jolly Gardeners, or Zeitgeist as it is now. It’s a large and lively German pub, showing live Bundesliga games and serving a great range of German beers, some familiar and others less so – 24 on tap in total and 30 types of bottled beer.

We passed the Lambeth Walk (oi!) and headed along to the Black Prince, a lovely pub offering a chance to put our feet up for a bit and learn a bit about the Black Prince himself, who once owned the manor of Kennington and built a royal palace very close the site of this pub.

We tore ourselves away for the very short walk to the Dog House, which is about as good a pub name as I’ve come across, for a bit of Trivial Pursuit from their collection, which is a lot cheaper than the £1 a pop versions and just about as likely of leaving you with a profit. Hopefully all the cobwebs around the bar were because they were making a bit of a Halloween effort rather than a reflection on their cleaning standards.

Round the corner from here is the small Prince of Wales, a traditional Shepherd Neame pub set in lovely Cleaver Square, although by this time it was rather too late to sit outside and enjoy it but I’m sure I’ll find an excuse to return on a nice day.

We were then foiled in our attempts to try out the White Bear as they had called last orders so we headed back towards Kennington Cross and the Tommyfield, which is large and at the time of our visit fairly empty, as it was around midnight and they were winding down. After this the more foolhardy among us decided on a final pint back in the Dog House, which was still doing a good trade in the early hours, before belatedly calling it a night.